Buzzine.com: John Mellencamp Retrospective Set On the Rural Route 7609

06.18.2010 - By Darryl Morden

John Mellencamp’s new retrospective set, On the Rural Route 7609, is not just
another anthology of hits and a scattering of previously unreleased bits. True,
you’ll find some of his biggest songs here, but they are blended, carefully,
with prior album tracks, unheard-until-now numbers, outtakes, and alternate
versions.

The set — a vinyl LP-sized book of sorts, not a “box” — came out in mid-June and
takes time to digest. It’s an archive on four discs, each thematically arranged,
offering new perspectives on his body of work. This is not a collection for the
hit-driven fan. For them, the two-disc, compact (and certainly still great)
Words and Music fits that bill. Rural Route 7609 is for those want to dig
deeper. Much deeper.

There was a time — a long time ago now — that Mellencamp was considered a solid
enough heartland hit-maker but in the creative shadow of Springsteen. That
changed with visionary albums such as 1985’s Scarecrow and 1987’s The Lonesome
Jubilee. His work over a quarter-century has proven to been compelling, probing,
and yeah, darn tuneful as well. Motivations, inspirations, whims and focus are
explained in detail in must-read liner notes from music journalist Anthony
DeCurtis and Mellencamp. Though each disc could be listened to as a single
piece, let’s take it in order.

Disc one begins with acoustic ballad “Longest Days” from the relatively recent
Life, Death, Love and Freedom in 2008 — a song about the death of Mellencamp’s
grandmother and how sickness and age together take us. It’s followed by her
voice on “Grandma’s Theme” from 1985’s Scarecrow, as she sings a rendition of
the “The Baggage Coach Ahead,” a traditional American folk song. Next comes
“Rural Route,” the collection’s semi-title song and a bleak, dark contrast to
the nostalgic American images of “Small Town” or “Jack and Diane.” Here, drugs,
rape, and murder infest that beloved once-seemingly idyllic heartland, though
most know it was never truly that way in the first place.

The structuring isn’t feel-good in any way, advancing to tracks that include
“Big Daddy of Them All,” yet balanced by a soothing duet with Trisha Yearwood,
“Deep Blue Heart” from 2001’s Cuttin’ Heads, which then gives way to more
brooding on sickness and dying in “Don’t Need This Body,” then an attempt at
easing troubles with “Forgiveness.” The lyrics found in “Jenny at 16″ reveal
“Jack and Diane” in progress, flowing into that #1 hit from the ’80s that made
the then John Cougar a big star.

Disc two opens with a spoken-word reading by actress Joanne Woodward of “The
Real Life” from 1987’s John Mellencamp album. Again, it’s a new perspective, in
this case of his words alone. Mellencamp calls “Ghost Towns Along the Highway”
the “sister song” to “Rain on the Scarecrow” as ways of life in America
disappear. Originally written for Johnny Cash during his American Recordings
years but never tracked, “The Full Catastrophe,” from Mr. Happy Go Lucky in
1996, bumps into an acoustic demo sung with a Jamaican lilt of the “I Fought The
Law”-ish “Authority Song.”

Politics flare up with seething anger in “Troubled Land” and the scathing
anti-George Bush “To Washington” — the latter a song that brought out right-wing
hate against Mellencamp. An alternative take of “This Country” (to many, a good
song marred when it became a Chevy ad theme) looks for affirmations in the
American ideals, including key lines such as “There’s room enough here for
science to live/And there’s room enough here for religion to forgive.” Roaming
over political landscape continues on with “Country Gentleman” from ‘89 and,
clearly about Reagan, the conflicted “Freedom’s Road” and an acoustic rendition
of the Bill Clinton-inspired “Mr. Bellows.” Bush is targeted again in “Rodeo
Clown,” which gives way to hope again through the Rough Harvest version of
organically funky “Love and Happiness” and the anthem “Pink Houses,” given a new
context in this setting.

For disc three, things kick off with a live, blues-washed “If I Die Sudden” and
raw-rocking “Someday,” then downshifts for the bittersweet reflection of a 1999
recording of “Between a Laugh and a Tear,” one of the best songs from Scarecrow
13 years earlier. An alternate version of the biographical “Void in My Heart,”
recorded at Chess Records, is buttressed against a version of Son House’s “Death
Letter.” A recent acoustic rendition of “Sugar Marie,” dating back to 1979’s
John Cougar, shows it may have the production and marketing at the time that
kept an emerging artist in check.

The run of songs on this grouping also include the electro-beat gospel of “When
Jesus Left Birmingham” from 1993’s Human Wheels, something of a throwaway in “L.U.V.”
from 1994’s Dance Naked, and gospel blues for “Thank You. In “Women Seem,”
recorded in 2001, Mellencamp says, in the liner notes, that its his view of his
ongoing lady troubles over the year while also plagiarizing The Kinks’ Ray
Davies. There’s more delta-grounded blues in “This World Don’t Bother Me None”
from 2004, which until now was only used in a documentary. A demo of the
sweet-look-back hit “Cherry Bomb” is another curious archival moment, Mellencamp
alone on just auto-harp. A new track, “Someday the Rains Will Fall,” comes from
sessions for his next planned studio set, No Better than This; it’s stark, just
voice and acoustic guitar, recorded in mono on vintage, circa-’40s equipment in
the Houston hotel room said to be where blues legend Robert Johnson was also
recorded. Another duet ends this song set, Karen Fairchild joining Mellencamp
for the spiritually imbued “A Ride Back Home.”

The cheerier rock-along tune, “My Aeroplane,” launches the fourth and final
disc, which also includes Mellencamp’s version of “Colored Lights,” the song he
wrote for 1980s Los Angeles roots-rockers, The Blasters. The soulful “Just Like
You” is a remembrance for a friend who died, and the acoustic “Young Without
Lovers” almost sounds like a lost hit, had it been punched up more for radio’s
fussy parameters. Another acoustic treatment of an old song, “To M.G. (Wherever
She May Be),” dating back to 1980, is another more personal piece, with a tone
that matches 1993’s folksy “Sweet Evening Breeze” which follows. One of the few
harder rocking tracks on the set, “What if I Came Knocking,” almost seems the
odd rocker out yet works — a burst of bravado met by the murder tale of “County
Fair” and then a solo acoustic yet stirring reading of “Peaceful World,” the
2001 hit duet with India.Arie. Liner notes address the song’s view of
contemporary racism and reveal it was thriving and ugly at Mellencamp’s own
record label at the time. One of his finest songs in the past dozen years is
next — “Your Life Is Now” — a pop record as a challenge to one’s own ethics and
convictions. The last track is an alternate take of “Rural Route,” even more
claustrophobic and tension-wrought than the version on the first disc and with
an extra verse of cautionary words: “Loneliness and isolation on the rural
route/Slowly change the look of this nation from the rural route.”

This isn’t a party — far from it. That might be another collection in the
future, perhaps one of concert tracks from over the years or perhaps live
material and also one-time b-sides (now on reissued albums on bonus tracks),
such as “Shama Lama Ding Dong.” For now, Mellencamp is traveling those dark
paths and, as it stands, On the Rural Route 7609 is not just another “box set.”
It’s not the ultimate chronology of his work for more than 30 years. It’s not
something for a single sitting. A good part of the selections come from his past
decade, which finds him as vital as ever — charts, radio and all be damned. It’s
Mellencamp’s opus — a treatise on a decaying America where hope and good still
live. But you have to find it, and that’s the hardest part of the journey.

John Mellencamp is touring this summer with Bob Dylan, and you won’t find a
better double-bill out there (except, perhaps, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
on dates with The Drive-By Truckers). You’ll find tour info on Mellencamp’s
official website.